Breathe
by mcleangal88
Summary: Bella has just graduated from college but feels she is missing the most important thing from life, LOVE. Edward has just lost the most important thing in his life. He is on a quest to find something help him breathe. Can Bella be that person?


Author's Chapter Notes:

This is just short intro to the story, I will try and add another chapter tomorrow that is 10 times longer.

Stephenie Meyer owns all of Twilight, I own what's left in this little story.

* * *

**BPOV**

It had been a long couple of weeks to get to this point. Hell it had been a long couple of years but here it is. I am finally graduating from college and all I have to show for it is a piece of paper announcing my Bachelors of Arts from University of Washington. I had always envisioned myself graduating with so much more than just a diploma. I always thought I would meet my soul-mate in college, yet all I had met was a handful of disappointing individuals who treated me like I was a bed to lie in. Now here I was walking towards my family, who had smiles upon their face, looks of pure elation at the first Swan to graduate from college and I felt empty inside.

I quickly put a smile on my face as I reach Charlie, Renee and Phil. I didn't want them to see my disappointment in the way that college ended.

"Oh sweetie, I am so proud of you! My little college graduate!" my mom cried as she hugged me tightly. Over her shoulder, I could see both Phil and Charlie trying not to laugh aloud at her antics.

"Renee, let go of Bella before she passes out from lack of oxygen" Charlie laughed as he pulled me away from my mother. He pulled me into a hug and whispered in my ear, "I am proud of you too, Kiddo. You worked so hard for this! Jack would have been proud of you too."

I smiled at my dad sadly as he took a step back and hugged Phil quickly so that I could be done with the emotional congregation of family that surrounded me. I was not big on showing my own emotions; much like Charlie normally was, though on his occasion he seemed to be letting his guard down slightly. I was good with keeping my feelings to myself so as not to alert others of my weaknesses. I only had one person that I shared all my emotional baggage with, my best friend and rock Alice. I looked around quickly for Alice, and smiled as I saw her skipping towards us.

Alice and I had been friends since the first time we had met during freshman orientation. We had been forced into a god awful presentation on the dangers of drinking at parties, not like many people had been paying attention. I had sat down at the back corner of the auditorium and pulled out my worn down copy of Withering Heights, fully intending on ignoring the seemingly obvious speech the young man who was seated on the stage was planning on presenting. In high school, we had had a similar presentation by a young woman who had hit someone while driving drunk; and who was then forced in speaking to high school students about the dangers of drinking and driving. I wasn't stupid enough to make a mistake like that, not just due to the fact that my father was a police officer and would probably kill me if I ever attempted a stunt like that. No, the reason I was not stupid enough to drink and drive was because my older brother, Jack, had been killed in a drunk driving accident when I was 13. Someone had hit him when he was on his way home from work and he had been killed instantly. So sitting through these speeches always made me feel a bit irate; these people had lived even though they were the ones who had made a mistake, while my brother had died when he had been a model citizen. Life was not fair.

So immerse in my book during that presentation, I was surprised that after the young man had been speaking for a couple of minutes I head the slightest scoff come from the seat next to me. I turned to see a livid Alice who turned to me and said the same thing I had been thinking moments prior.

"It's so unfair that we have listen to these people speak, I would rather hear from the family that he crushed, hear how they feel after he took their mother's life."

It was after that one sentence that I knew that Alice and I would be good friends. We spoke quietly through the rest of the presentation; she told me how she had lost her parents to a drunk driver and I told her about Jack. The fact that we share something so personal in our lives, that we had both lived through that type of devastation brought us closer together and solidified us as best friends. Over the years Alice had become a part of my family by joining me for all vacation time from school. Though she had family that she had lived with after her parents had been killed, she found more solace with my family and I then she did with her own. She had become the best friend/sister a girl could ever ask for.

"I'm **so** excited." Alice all but yelled as she tackled me in a hug. "Can you believe that we are done? No more classes, no more weird professors. WE ARE DONE!"

My parents smiled as they each took a turn to hug Alice and congratulate her as well. Though minutes before I had been slightly upset that I had only a diploma to show for my time in college, I knew that I was wrong; I had so much more than just a diploma, I had made a great friend out of Alice and now I was embarking on a new path, a path that would hopefully take me towards that small bit I was currently missing from my life. It was time for a new beginning.

* * *

Next chapter will be Edward's back story and more...


End file.
